Monday, August 27, 2012

What's Wrong With Samba?

What a day! Samba and I were up every hour all night. She would go stand in the yard, but nothing happened. Finally at 4AM she had a fecal explosion. I won't go into detail since it was pretty gross. I'll only say that her stool is completely liquid and quite violent. OK, enough about that for now.

bad bacteria

At 7:30 we dropped her at the clinic. Then I tried to concentrate till our appointment at 2:15. My thoughts kept going back to Samba and what could possibly be wrong. I did manage to knit a few rows but that was about all that got done.

When Dr B came in carrying xrays and boxes and bottles, he announced that it was mostly good news. I felt the weight slip of my shoulders and neck and my headache went away instantly. Here's what we learned.

The bile acid test was normal. The xrays show a normal looking liver and no masses were apparent. Everything looked pretty good except that her small intestine was full, and I do mean full, of gas. He said they'd tried taking her out hoping she'd release some of the gas, but she wasn't feeling cooperative. Dr B did notice that her eyes looked less worried and she was more active than last week.

normal liver

So, if all the tests were normal, why is she not eating, having loads of gas and watery, explosive stool? And why did she lose five pounds in one week? The answer is we don't know. The most likely reason is prolonged steroid use and a possible tolerance problem with her special diet designed for her MMM. This is not to be confused with food allergy, she does not have that.

So, what are we going to do for her? For the time being she's eating a prescription diet designed for intestinal problems. It's very easily digested. We're feeding four small meals a day, instead of the two larger ones she normally gets.

good bacteria

She's getting a daily dose of beneficial bacteria added to her food, plus medicine to sooth her intestinal tract. We've also increased her prednisone temporarily because we don't want a flare up of her jaw disease while we're straightening out this new issue.

Dr B and I will be having phone conferences every Monday and Friday until we get this all fixed. We'll be working on tweaking the diet and adjusting the dosage on her meds till she's a happy girl again.

We think it was the Power Of The Paw that helped the most. All those good healing vibes flying thru Blogville had to make the big difference. We are so grateful to all of you who expressed concern for my little girl. We have a long way to go to get back to normal, but knowing that everyone's supporting us, I'm sure we'll make it. Thank you everyone.

I was thinking of you yesterday (Monday) but didn't get a chance to look at the computer--I'm glad that you're headed in the right direction, and we're keeping all paws and fingers crossed here and sending prayers in your direction!

I'm so glad Dr. B has a plan. Even when things aren't fixed, having a plan is very comforting. And the fact that Samba's showing a little improvement is good, too. I'm very happy to hear this good news!